3.98 avg rating — 4,440 ratings

"Babel is one of my favorite authors, and unlike Bulgakov and Solzhenitsyn, he's virtually unknown in the West. I find that his works translate quite well into English provided that you're familiar with the subject matter (in this case, the Soviet-Polish war, Cossacks, and Jewish communities in Poland).

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3.88 avg rating — 113,094 ratings

"Dystopian novel that pre-dates Brave New World and 1984"

4.08 avg rating — 73,036 ratings

4.28 avg rating — 423,139 ratings

4.39 avg rating — 24,535 ratings

3.98 avg rating — 125,525 ratings

4.20 avg rating — 3,102 ratings

"(who was a futurist of such fantastic eccentricity his life is almost as interesting as his writing."

4.36 avg rating — 8,626 ratings

"When asked of his opinion about 'A Day in the Life' Shalamov said Solzhenitsyn had watered-down the horror of the gulags a bit due to one scene in the infirmary where there was a cat. "If he'd told the truth, that cat would have already been eaten.""

3.78 avg rating — 6,482 ratings

"This one really stuck in my head. There was something disquieting and horrifying about everything that happens in this book from the plotline, the narrator, to the language used."

4.03 avg rating — 13,123 ratings

3.84 avg rating — 5,823 ratings

"Hands down my favorite read of the semester for the line "As difficult as putting an octopus in tuxedo pants""

4.37 avg rating — 5,402 ratings

3.69 avg rating — 4,002 ratings

"Optional but underrated and high recommended "